A few days on the road

Photos:

Dodgy record shots of Great Northern Diver at Stewartby Lake and Lesser Scaup at Slimbridge

Common Cranes in Somerset (the Kestrel was also there)

Great White Egret and Starlings at Ham Wall RSPB

12th December

I was travelling again today, working away tomorrow near Milton Keynes. I stopped on the way down at a place called Ditchford Gravel Pits. Some good gulls had apparently been seen here. It looks a good little reserve, however I was to find out that there are numerous patches of water in this area and most are inaccessible to the public. In the distance I could see large numbers of gulls visiting a ploughed field but then going to out of reach pools for a bath, consequently no real goodies. A single Yelloe-legged Gull (second winter) was seen late on by a pool near the road. The visit had started well with a low flying Red Kite over the car park just as I got out. A Green Woodpecker and a flock of 180+ Fieldfares were the pick of the rest.

13th December

Finishing work early I popped over to Caldecotte Lake which is around 2 miles from where I regularly work. A juvenile Great Northern Diver had been seen here. The western half of the lake is fairly accessible, however a good grilling of this section failed to produce the diver. I assumed it had probably swum under the road and into the eastern half where, frankly, it could have been anywhere. Fortunately for me I picked it up swimming under the bridge back into the western half just as I was about to leave. Nice bird! It was a bitterly cold and windy afternoon though.

I then headed over to Stewartby Lake for the gull roost. I had noticed that nothing much was being reported here this winter and soon found out why – there were hardly any big gulls on the lake though I guess 5-6000 Black-headed Gulls were present. I stood there in the gloom feeling a bit miffed when a shape glided across the lake in front of me – another Great Northern Diver! Well I can’t complain at two of these in the same afternoon.

14th December

Travelled into Somerset where I am working tomorrow. I decided to pay a visit to the released Cranes that were down in this part of the world. When I arrived I found the local river had flooded and large parts of the area were under water. Fortunately access to the bridge over the river and the footpath on the far banking were still OK.

First thing I noticed was the Starlings – thousands of then all over the place. Walking further down I used my bins and spotted two distant cranes in a paddock and a much more distant group so I headed for the nearest birds only to find out when I got in range that they were dummies, placed there to attract Cranes back to the area!

I then focussed on the distant group and began to watch. The 34 released birds (18 2cy birds and 16 1cy birds) were all present and correct and accompanied by the wild adult bird which had been hanging around for a while. A couple of birders then rolled up and suddenly one claimed a Great White Egret. This turned out to be another dummy which was reflecting sunlight back!

As I drove past Greylake RSPB I could swear that the world’s supply of Lapwings was in the fields along the road – thousands and thousands of them.

I then headed off to Ham Wall for dusk, arriving around an hour before dusk. First thing spotted was a male Marsh Harrier which quartered the marsh opposite the viewing platform. Then on the marsh behind I spotted two Great White Egrets, one near bird skulking in reeds (and then flew off) and a very distant bird flying over the back of the marsh. Some nearby Alders held some Siskins and Lesser Redpolls.

It went quiet for a short while and then a second male Marsh Harrier appeared on a different section of marsh. This was followed by the appearance in quick succession of three more Great White Egrets, all from the reeds behind the platform and all followed the first bird. Nice to see all five birds still around. A Bittern then showed spectacularly well, flying low across the front of the viewing platform and a second dropped into reeds further out on the marsh. According to the RSPB volunteer, there were 21 booming males on the Avalon Marshes this year which apparently makes this the highest density of Bitterns in Europe. Three Cetti’s Warblers were heard singing, only one was seen.

The first Starlings then started to arrive, closely followed by others and soon hundreds of thousands of birds were flying around. They put on a superb show tonight, swirling around in the sky and constantly moving from one reed bed to another. The only raptor seen having a pop was a Sparrowhawk. Numbers were not at last winters levels when apparently 4-5 million peaked. A very rough guess was that around 2 million were present tonight and boy did I enjoy the display!!!!

15th December

I started and finished work early today in Somerset and headed back north. The M5 was pretty clogged though so rather than sit in queues, I diverted to Slimbridge, arriving around 30 minutes before dusk. I popped into the observatory to look for the female Lesser Scaup. Quite a few birders were already there looking for her but no one had seen her. I eventually picked her up in the trap, fairly distant views before she disappeared out of sight. I also had a quick look at the fields from the Hide. 79 Bewick’s Swans and 139 European White-fronted Geese were there, however it was rapidly getting too dark to see so I called it a day and headed back to the traffic jam.